What did Hubble see on your birthday? How to find NASA picture from your birth date

4 February 2022, 12:27

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By Jazmin Duribe

People are discovering that NASA allows you to see a photo of the universe taken on your birthday and it's pretty cool.

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Have you ever wondered what the universe looked like on your birthday? Well, budding stargazers this one's for you because NASA has been sneakily taking photos of the universe 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the last 25 years.

In 2021, NASA launched a feature that allows users to see what the universe looked like on their birthday. All the images are stored on the Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) website, which is run by Nasa and Michigan Technical University.

But how do they do it? Well, all the images are taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Named after astronomer Edwin Hubble, the powerful telescope was launched and deployed by the space shuttle Discovery in 1990. Hubble has a crystal-clear view of the universe and hurtles around the Earth at about 17,000 mph.

What did Hubble see on your birthday?

Finding the picture NASA took on your birthday is actually surprisingly simple. All you need to do is head to NASA's website and key in your birthday. Then, you'll see an image of the universe on that exact date and some details about the image.

For example, if you were born on February 4 you'd see the Galaxy Cluster MACS J0717.5+3745. The description reads: "Nearly every object in this image is a distant galaxy in the cluster MACS J0717.5+3745. Some faint arcs and streaks in the image are even farther galaxies whose light has been bent by the powerful gravity of the massive cluster."

The internet has now made NASA's birthday calculator a trend and people on TikTok are sharing their fascinating results.